"We are living in dangerous times. Europe is under a very real threat. Today I present the Rearm Europe plan." The President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, framed her historic intervention this Tuesday in Brussels where she announced the mobilization of up to 800 billion euros in military spending. This is to address the real threat posed by Russia but also to help Ukraine, distributed in five points that will allow for a "rapid and significant increase" in military spending. "It is Europe's moment," emphasized the high-ranking German official just hours after the Trump Administration announced freezing its military support to Ukraine.
The first point of the plan is the activation of national clauses, allowing countries to significantly increase their military spending. In fact, the majority of the mentioned 800 billion will come from this action: the president estimates that if countries increase their respective investments by an average of 1.5% of GDP, this will create an impulse of "600 billion over the next four years."
"Use of national public funds," Von der Leyen insisted, meaning that countries will have to allocate more money from their own budgets. This will force governments like Spain's to significantly change their spending policies, putting President Sánchez in a difficult position. In fact, Spain had tried to downplay this part of the action plan, but the Commission president has been clear. To enable this, and as EL MUNDO had already reported, Europe will not apply excessive deficit procedures to countries that experience budget deviations due to increased defense spending.
The second point is the European instrument that the Commission had previously announced, endowed with up to 150 billion euros in loans. "It is about spending better and spending together," noted Von der Leyen, who also pointed out that this action will allow member countries to "massively increase their support to Ukraine."
The third point is the reallocation of cohesion funds for Defense, the fourth addresses the need to accelerate the union of savings and investment, and the last one directly targets the European Investment Bank (EIB) presided over by Nadia Calviño. This institution currently invests only 2% of its nearly 100 billion euro budget in Defense, and many countries, including Spain, have indicated that the EIB should play a more active role.
"Rearming Europe could mobilize close to 800 billion euros in defense spending for a safe and resilient Europe," emphasized Von der Leyen, who has already sent these proposals to the presidents of the member countries and they will be the basis for discussion at the exceptional summit taking place this Thursday in Brussels. "Speed and ambition," summarized the Commission president.